Clinical Partner Spotlight: Dunlap Equine Services
A lifelong horsewoman and dedicated animal rescuer, Dr. Dunlap has competed in three-day eventing, dressage, and hunter-jumper disciplines. She graduated from the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in 1999. She then completed an Equine Medicine and Surgery Internship at Tufts in conjunction with the sport horse practice Mass Equine, followed by a rigorous Equine Surgical Residency at the University of Tennessee School of Veterinary Medicine. During her residency, she was honored twice with the Large Animal Resident of the Year Award.
Dr. Dunlap has extensive experience in lameness diagnostics, emergency medicine, critical care response, equine technical rescue, rehabilitation, and disaster response. She is a member of the Shelby and Fayette County Disaster Animal Response Teams (DART) and has completed Animal Search and Rescue (ASAR) training in slack water animal rescue. She has led veterinary teams during natural disasters and large-scale animal cruelty cases, overseeing care in emergency shelters and serving as Incident Commander on Rapid Response Teams for numerous federal, state, and local investigations. Nationally regarded for her expertise in equine disaster and emergency field response, Dr. Dunlap has been a guest lecturer at veterinary schools in Arizona and Washington State on the veterinarian’s role in disasters and animal cruelty investigations, and she has returned multiple times to lecture at her alma mater, Tufts. She has also served as an expert witness in veterinary medicine, veterinary forensics, and animal cruelty investigations.
Dunlap Equine Services is a clinic- and ambulatory-based equine practice serving the greater Mid-South region. The practice provides emergency care, lameness diagnostics, general wellness services, and critical care within the clinic. The facility includes separate barns for isolation, ICU, outpatient, and inpatient care. Diagnostic capabilities include digital radiography, ultrasonography, upper airway endoscopy, gastroscopy, and an in-house laboratory.
A-State veterinary students will be encouraged to participate in all aspects of patient care, including client communication, case workups and diagnostics, and daily inpatient management. Students will gain experience handling animals infected by contagious diseases in the isolation ward, will learn proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE), and will experience a large caseload of emergency, critical care, and routine equine cases. They will also be instructed in emergency and critical care procedures as well as technical large animal rescue.
One of the practice’s most impactful initiatives is Dr. Dunlap’s Geld-a-thon program, created to provide low-cost castrations and vaccinations for at-risk stallions and colts. Nearly 300 horses have participated in the program to date. Veterinary student externs are paired with a colt or stallion, scrub in, and perform the surgery with Dr. Dunlap’. The program benefits low-income families, at-risk horses, and veterinary students alike by combining community service with meaningful surgical training.
Since opening in 2003, Dunlap Equine Services has hosted both pre-veterinary and veterinary student externs, providing extensive real-world experience in ambulatory practice as well as outpatient and inpatient hospital care. Through mentorship, hands-on training, and service-oriented programs like the Geld-a-thon, Dr. Dunlap and her team are proud to assist in the journeys of A-State veterinary students as they prepare to become the next generation of veterinary leaders.